Battle of Two Sisters - Course of Battle

Course of Battle

On 4 June the three companies of 45 CDO advanced on Bluff Cove Peak, on the lower slopes of Mount Kent, and were able to occupy the feature without opposition and was met by patrols from the SAS. Enemy opposition was desultory but on the night of 29 May a fierce firefight developed in taking the two important hills, that were intended to form part of an Argentine Special Forces line.

Captain Andrés Ferrero's patrol (3rd Assault Section, 602 Commando Company) made the base of Mount Kent but were then promptly pinned by machinegun and mortar fire. First-Sergeant Raimundo Máximo Viltes was badly wounded when a bullet shattered his heel. Air Troop had two wounded from rifle fire. Probing attacks around the D Squadron positions continued throughout the night and at 11:00 am on 30 May, about 12 Argentine Commandos (Captain Tomás Fernández's 2nd Assault Section, 602 Commando Company) tried to get up the summit of Bluff Cove Peak, but were driven off by D Squadron who killed two of the party, First Lieutenant Rubén Eduardo Márquez and Sergeant Óscar Humberto Blas. First Lieutenant Márquez and Sergeant Blas had shown great personal courage and leadership in the contact and were posthumously awarded the Argentine Medal of Valour in Combat. During this contact the SAS suffered two casualties from grenades. The Argentine Commandos literally stumbled on a camp occupied by 15 SAS troopers.Throughout 30 May, Royal Air Force Harriers were active over Mount Kent. One of them, responding to a call for help from D Squadron, was lost to small-arms fire attacking Mount Kent's eastern lower slopes.

A heavy mist hung over the Murrell River area, which assisted the 45 Commando Recce Troop to reach and sometimes penetrate the Argentine 3rd Platoon position under Sub-Lieutenant Marcelo Llambías-Pravaz. Marine Andrew Tubb of Recce Troop was on these patrols:

We were actually inside the Argentine position, so we ended up shelling ourselves. We did a lot of patrols up to Two Sisters ... that time we pepper-potted for about 400 metres to get out ], through the Argy lines firing 66 rockets to fight through and regroup. We got artillery again to smoke us out. It took us well over an hour to get away and it seemed like a few minutes. We killed seventeen of them ], and all we had was one bloke with a flesh wound. —Robin Neillands, By Sea & Land: The Story of the Royal Marine Commandos, p. 402, Cassell Military Paperbacks, 2000

For his patrol action, Lieutenant Chris Fox received the Military Cross. In general terms, the Argentines were thoroughly entrenched, about 6,000 metres or less across a no-man's-land. The Argentine positions were mined and patrolled heavily.

At about 2.10 am local time on 10 June a strong 45 Commando fighting patrol probed the 3rd Platoon position. In the ensuing fight Special Forces Sergeants M. Cisneros and R. Acosta were killed; two more Argentine Special Forces lying in ambush for the Royal Marines were wounded. The British military historian Bruce Quarrie wrote later:

A constant series of patrols was undertaken at night to scout out and harass the enemy. Typical was the patrol sent out in the early hours of the morning of 10 June. Lieutenant David Stewart of X-Ray Company, 45 Commando, had briefed his men during the previous afternoon, and by midnight they were ready. Heavily armed, with two machine-guns per section plus 66 mm rocket launchers and 2-inch mortars, the Troop moved off stealthily into the moonlit night towards a ridge some 4 km away where Argentine movement had been observed. Keeping well spaced out because of the good visibility, they moved across the rocky ground using the numerous shell holes for cover, and by 04.00 were set to cross the final stretch of open ground in front of the enemy positions. Using a shallow stream for cover, they moved up the slope and deployed into position among the rocks in front of the Argentine trenches. With the help of a light-intensifying night scope, they could see sentries moving about. Suddenly, an Argentine machine-gun opened fire and the Marines launched a couple of flares from their mortar, firing back with their own machine-guns and rifles. Within seconds three Argentine soldiers and two Marines were dead. Other figures could be seen running on the hill to the left, and four more Argentine soldiers fell to the accuracy of the Marines' fire. By this time, the Argentine troops further up the slope were wide awake, and a hail of fire forced the Marines to crouch in the shelter of the rocks. The situation was becoming decidedly unhealthy and Lieutenant Stewart decided to retire, with the objective of killing and harassing the enemy well and truly accomplished. However, a machine-gun to the Marines' right was pouring fire over their getaway route, and Stewart sent his veteran Sergeant, Jolly, with a couple of other men to take it out . After a difficult approach with little cover, there was a short burst of fire and the Argentine machine-gun fell silent. Leapfrogging by sections, the Troop retreated to the stream, by which time the Argentine fire was falling short and there were no further casualties. —Bruce Quarrie, The Worlds Elite Forces, pp.53-54, Octopus Books Limited, 1985

Major Aldo Rico, commander of the 602 Commando Company (involved in a military revolt some years after the war, followed by a career in politics) had a lucky escape in this engagement, when an enemy 66mm projectile exploded uncomfortably close.On that same night (9–10 June) a mistake was made in the dark and friendly fire was exchanged between British forces, resulting in casualties.

The Mountain & Artic Warfare Cadre also carried patrolling against Two Sisters and Sergeant Joseph Wassell and Lieutenant Fraser Haddow played an important in the capture of the mountain when they discovered with their binoculars from their observation post on Goat Ridge, the command-detonated barrel of mines the Argentinians had dug in and planned to use on the eastern half of the mountain.

Captain Ian Gardiner's X-Ray Company spearheaded the attack on Two Sisters, accompanied by the unit's Commando-trained chaplain, the Revd Wynne Jones RN. Lieutenant James Kelly's 1 Troop took the western third of the spineback on the southern peak of Two Sisters (Long Toenail) with no fighting taking place. However at 11:30 pm local time (see No Picnic, p. 131), Lieutenant David Stewart's 3 Troop ran up against a very determined defence on the spineback and were unable to get forward. Beaten from their attempt to dislodge the Argentine 3rd Platoon, Lieutenant Chris Caroe's 2 Troop threw themselves at the platoon, but the attack was dispersed with the help of artillery fire. For three or four hours X Ray Company were pinned down on the slopes of the mountain.Naval gunfire ripped back and forth across the mountain, but the Argentine 3rd Platoon of Llambías-Pravaz held the Royal Marines off and were not dislodged until about 2.30 am local time.Colonel Andrew Whitehead realized that a single company could not hope to secure Two Sisters without massive casualties, and brought up the battalion's two other companies.

At about 12:30 am local time (see No Picnic, p. 132) Yankee and Zulu Companies attacked the northern peak (Summer Days) and after a very hard two-hour fight against two rifle platoons and despite heavy machine-gun and mortar fire, succeeded in capturing 'Summer Days'. The Argentine mortar platoon commander, Lieutenant Martella is killed in this action.The Z Company platoon commander, Lieutenant Clive Dytor, won the Military Cross by rallying his 8 Troop and leading it forward at bayonet point to take Summer Days. He later recalled "I began listening to our rate of fire and I realised we were going to run out of ammunition. Then I remembered a line in a book about the Black Watch in the Second World War. They were pinned down and the adjutant stood up and shouted, 'Is this the Black Watch? Charge!’ What I didn’t remember, until I read it again later, was that he was actually cut in half at that point by a German machine gun. The next thing I knew I was up and running on my own, shouting, 'Zulu, Zulu, Zulu’, which was our company battle cry and also the battle cry of my father’s old regiment, South Wales Borderers."

Second Lieutenant Aldo Eugenio Franco and his RI 6 platoon covered the Argentine withdrawal and prevented Yankee Company from attacking C Company as it withdrew from Two Sisters.Private Oscar Ismael Poltronieri who held up Yankee Company with accurate shooting with his rifle and a machine-gun, was awarded the Argentine Nation to the Heroic Valour in Combat Cross (CHVC), the highest Argentine decoration for bravery.